Author Archive
Calvary Cemetery walk
feel like taking a walk? I’ll show you something cool… Bring your camera- and ID
Here’s a google map.
For a larger contextual view of Calvary Cemetery- check out our previous posts-
Walking Widdershins to Calvary
This post also intersects with
Dead Ends, A short walk from Maspeth to Calvary
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Just across the street from the site of the former LIRR Penny Bridge station. Easily accessed via the street, upon crossing the gates of Calvary, one will find a staircase carven into the hill by whose ascent the Newtown acropolis may be obtained. Cresting over the surrounding neighborhoods, and soaring over the Newtown Creek’s former wetlands, Calvary Cemetery keeps its secrets buried in centuried silence. Looking south toward Brooklyn, the Kosciuszko bridge approach of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway looms over its passage, carrying millions of vehicles over and across the necropolis of New York City.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Phantoms of what could have been haunt Calvary, roaming in soliloquy amongst the avenues of nitre dripping marble. The 1918 superflu and an earlier cholera epidemic staffed the ranks here with both the sacred and the profane. St. Patrick’s in Manhattan used this place for the interment of New York’s best and brightest. This is where the ossified remnants of the men who died battling the traitorous slavers of the Confederate South can be found in the Newtown mud. In subterranean vaults of marble and basalt, and within leaden coffins, these gentlemen– the ultimate product of an age of victorian aspirations- lie in putrid splendor, alongside the occasional merchant and immigrant whose life savings were traded to purchase their final resting place.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
A member of our flickr group, sorabji, has written an excellent description- in some great detail on the Civil War monument and the Johnston mausoleum. Which you’ll find in concrete reality when you gaze from the summit of the great hill. I won’t attempt to better sorabji’s efforts, and will simply ask you to follow the link and check out the research.
At the apex of the hill, which is the acropolis of Calvary on the Newtown Creek side, there can be found a tree.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Undoubtedly centenarian at the very least, the bark and leaves of this tree are of an unnaturally dark and forbidding aspect. Its branches sway in patterns that have nothing in common with the prevailing winds. Its trunk is observed wearing a a sickly blanket of moss. Vigorous and quite healthy despite its proximity to the poisons of the Newtown Creek, the tree is obviously nourished by some sort of morbid nutrition.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
An apocryphal story passed down by Brooklyn folks is that of the door to door salesman seeking to sell you a funeral plot “on a hill, under a shady tree, near a babbling brook”. The proper Brooklyn response is- ‘yeah? and I gots a bridge to sell youse”.
This, my friends, is the very archetype of that con job. The hill is called Laurel and the babbling brook is, and was, the Newtown Creek and the grave is in Calvary.
-photo by Mitch Waxman
How deep do the roots of this tree plunge into the tumulous earth? And where can they lead? What foul corruptions do they feed upon?
-photo by Mitch Waxman
Can it be, that just like every other place in New York’s megalopolis, Calvary’s “holy ground” is actually the roof of some cyclopean structure?
Anything you may experience, in situ, by following these walking directions is at your OWN RISK, and is offered by the Newtown Pentacle for documentary and entertainment purposes only. Remember- the rule we follow at the Newtown Pentacle is to NEVER trespass. Like Vampires, Newtownicans should wait to be invited into a house before they can do their work. Also, Please note — if something you read here is inaccurate, DO NOT BE SHY- contact me– additions and corrections are always welcome at the Newtown Pentacle.
from Queenscrap
From Queenscrap, 8/2/09
Maspeth needs and deserves a park
Dear Mayor Bloomberg:
I am a lifelong (60 years) resident of Maspeth, as were my parents and grandparents. I am hoping to convince the City to acquire the land of the former St. Saviour’s Church and turn it into a park.
This area goes back to the beginning of Maspeth. Where Newtown Creek ended, the first Dutch settlement began among the native people. Maspeth was the first chartered settlement on Long Island. During the Revolutionary War, local homes were used by the British as their headquarters. Former mayor, governor, senator, etc., DeWitt Clinton’s home was here across the street from the St. Saviour’s property. The land was donated by Congressman Maurice for community needs and was known as Maspeth Hill.
The area around Newtown Creek became a major industrial area in NYC, and it’s said that more tonnage was carried on Newtown Creek than the Mississippi River during WWII…
read more here
the Hermetic Hungarian, a guest blogger
How does one introduce this friend of the pentacle?
A reclusive genius with interests in architecture, artificial intelligence and machine languages, and the study of esoteric eastern religions, a venerated scholar imprisoned by his poor health and a weakened constitution. Paranoid, and given to spells of extreme melancholy, his hobby of late has been the repair and restoration of old watches and other timepieces. Recently, he was forced to abandon his designs for a degenerate clockwork which would have demonstrated the birth and death of the universe– mechanically- because some things should just not be.
He’s calling himself Swami Shiva Krishnananda Dasa here, but its either one of many aliases, or He’s just teasing us. No hint can be transmitted regarding his hidden agendas- but I can say that his family has roots in subversive 19th century european politics, and branches into the hasidic sects of the Jews. He lives in Manhattan, on a street where Poe once dreamt of loves lost. At the Newtown Pentacle… we just call him the Hungarian Hermit.
By Swami Shiva Krishnananda Dasa
the Hungarian Hermit even sent along a live link to a google map here.
Currently the Universe is in the Kali Yuga, the Age of Decline and Decadence. This is the fourth and final Age before Mahavishnu inhales the Universe in Shiva’s final Act of destruction.
The Divine cycle will then begin anew by Brahma the Creator, with the auspicious Krita Yuga, known by the Greeks as the Golden Age. Each Yuga lasts countless kalpas, a measurement of time equivalent to hundreds of millions of years. Brahma Creates the Universe, Vishnu Sustains it, and at the end of the cycle Shiva Destroys the Universe setting the ground for the next cycle of Creation.
Shiva, the Lord of Ghosts, the Ash-Covered Matted-Haired God who’s Dwelling is in the Charnel Grounds of the World, is the only Deity strong enough to drink the Kalkata, the World Poison, thus saving the World from premature Destruction.
In every Age the World Poison is a threat the very existence. In a precursor to the Final Destruction, Shiva appears as Shiva-Mahakala when the warring Gods and Demigods have churned the Oceans, including Shiva’s favorite, the Ocean of Milk. The moon, lodged in Shiva’s Matted Hair, shines on the Churning Oceans and calls forth the Kalkata, the World Poison.
In our Age the World Poison is that which was Created by the Divine and Profaned by Man. Man’s Dominion is on the Earth and on the Ocean. When Poisons are extracted from beneath Land and Sea by wayward Man they become Poison no matter how good the intentions. Such is Man’s destiny.
Shiva was called to Newtown Creek because of the centuries of man’s Defilement by Oil, boiled animals, Mercury, and other poisons until the entire area threatened the lives of millions of people.
Shiva Emanated Himself to drink this World Poison, to put off the Destruction until the time specified by the Vedas. It is not for Man to do the work of the Gods.
As a lesson to Man, Shiva did not drink all of the World Poison. He left some beneath the surface of Newtown Creek as a warning to Man. Further, standing on Furman’s Island, the location of the worst of the Defilements, Shiva scattered Rudraksha Seeds, beloved of Him, which were eventually to draw Brahmins from India to construct Mandirs, Temples, on the auspicious locations of the Holy Seeds. A map of the Mandir locations is provided with their relationship to Furman’s Island.
Hook and Ladder 66, updated
I posted about the Hook and Ladder 66 firehouse on Northern Blvd. a few weeks ago. In that post, I commented on how the history of the FDNY is a historical subject so vast that it is best left to the experts. Luckily, for me- and for you- one of those experts contacted the Newtown Pentacle with a wealth of information about the firehouse and the men who worked there.
text and photos from James Rooney, used with permission. Link insertions are from the Newtown Pentacle for referential purposes:
“Here is the photo that I found on the internet. It was posted by the Captain Thomas F. McKeon’s grandson. He was a Captain in Long Island City/Astoria area for almost 30 Years. From November of 1897 till around 1925. That house was opened in August of 1905 I think, and Captain McKeon was Captian of Ladder 67 in Astoria from 1897 till around 1906.”
” The original Captain of Ladder 66 was John J. Slattery and the firehouse was located at 443 Buckley street which was 36th street and extended through the Sunnyside Rail yards. All those houses were torn down in around 1906 when they built the Sunnyside yards. 443 was located a little south of Jackson Ave which is now Northern Blvd..
There were horses driving the fire truck till about 1922 I think. The original fire trucks were Gleason & Bailey 50 foot Combination Chemical aerial Ladders. The first was an 1895 model and later they recieved a 1905 model. I’ve been trying to locate more information on the Fire Company there. I’ve been a firefighter in Ladder 116 since 1990, and our current firehouse has record books from the company going back to the Early 1900’s showing the early Fire Records from the area from around 1903 till 1916.”
James Rooney Ladder 116
and he also sent these:
“I was searching about on the internet and found this photo of an 1898 Gleason & Bailey Manufacturing Company 55′ Combination Chemical engine that Ladder 66 had in 1904. That firehouse on Northern Blvd was completed on October 11, 1904 and the address then was 701 Jackson Ave East of Kouwenhoven Street, which is now Northern Blvd east of 38th street.
When Hook & Ladder 66 settled in at the new firehouse the FDNY bought them a brand new 1905 American La France Engine Company 50′ Combination Chemical Engine Registration # 27B pulled by two Horses.”
“We have records from the company going back to almost 1900. That firehouse on Northern was built and opened in 1904. The original Company was Ladder 2 of the Long Island City FD. When it was incorporated into the New York City Metropolitan area in January of 1898 it became Ladder 16 or Truck 16. There is a great article you can access online in the Brooklyn Eagle from May of 1899 listing the firehouses of Long Island City and it labels Truck 16 as the worst firehouse in the City. That prompted the move to have a new firehouse built.
Later before the company moved into that Northern Blvd firehouse they became Hook & Ladder 66. The company later became Hook & Ladder 116 in around 1913. The horses were replaced in I think September of 1922, and I have records of the horses and rigs up untill that time. The photo I sent you is of the Firefighters with Captain McKeon circa 1920 I found it online posted by the Captain Thomas F.McKeon’s grandson. He had it mistakenly labelled as the Maspeth FD.
Captain McKeon was Captain from around 1905 till around 1925, he was the original Captain of Ladder 117 from 1898 till 1906. Ladder 116’s original Captain was John J. Slattery from 1898 till 1906. After Captain Thomas F. McKeon we had Captain James J. Murphy #2 who became a firefighter in 1906 and was born in 1885. He served as Captain of Ladder
116 from 1926 till January 1, 1955…”
“That firehouse on Northern had Hook & Ladder 116 moved out of it in the Fall of 1947, maybe because Northern Blvd was just too busy to have the company travel in and out with all of the traffic there. They were moved into the 29th street firehouse along with Engine 261. Engine 261 was closed by the city in May of 2003.
A few of the other original buildings still left are Engine 260’s quarters on Vernon Blvd, Engine 258‘s quarters on Northern Blvd, and Ladder 115‘s quarters on 47th Rd, as well as Engine 262‘s quarters on Main st. in Astoria.
Here’s a shot of the original Engine 260 on Vernon Ave.”
Thank you James Rooney!
Great Newtown Creek Tale
Our pal Rob over at thismyshiznat.com turns his attention to a Newtown Creek tale here. This one is about a guy who decided to drill for oil in Brooklyn, into the subterrene Greenpoint Oil Spill, in his yard.
